do you have imagine what might have happened if the obama administration had intervened early by imposing a no-fly zone at very little cost and risk to the united states over syria, if assad had been gone 12 months ago fwe were now in the midst of a transitional process with an opposition that hadn't been radicallized by the influx from jordan, iraq, from elsewhere. instead, we're having not only the syrian meltdown with serious consequences, but hundreds of thousands of refugees in turkey, destabilization of jordan and increasing inability in lebanon and this is spilling out all over the region, paul. >> paul: what about the president's red lines on--bama' so-called, on syrian chemical weapons before he said, if they move these chemical weapons there will be consequences and now they've dropped the moved argument and they're now saying if he uses those chemical weapons. are we seeing a backtracking from the the united states? >> i think the backtracking to our default position which is to do nothing at all. i think it's justifiable that they may have moved these and we don't know why, ma